Method and System for Reconciling Transportation Records

Abstract

Aspects of the present invention are directed to a system for next day reconciliation of transportation records. The system having a transportation record storage provider (TRSP) that receives and stores storage medium transportation requests; an outside service provider (OSP) inventory manager that receives and maintains records of transported storage mediums scanned at the OSP; and a reconciliation provider that receives a first list from the TRSP and a second list from the OSP inventory manger, for reconciliation. The reconciliation provider includes receivers for receiving the first and second list; a processing engine that reconciles the first list and the second list; and a reporting unit that reports the results of the reconciliation. The processing engine matches inbound and outbound records of the first list and second list, and processes invalid records; and analyzes and accounts for un-matched records.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD[0001]Methods and apparatuses of the present invention relate to records management, and in particular to reconciling data transportation records regarding the movement of data between a data center and an off-site data storage provider.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]Large institutions must analyze, categorize, and store enormous amounts of information that pass through their data centers daily. Recording mediums (hereinafter “media tapes”) for storing the information may be held off-site at a depot managed by a third-party, a so-called outside service provider (OSP), just one example being Iron Mountain™. Once stored, the media tapes remain at the OSP until user at the institution requests them.[0003]It is vitally important that when user at an institution requests a media tape, the media tape is actually located at the OSP. For example, large institutions use OSPs to store data from one of many data centers, and if a media tape is not located at the OSP then milli...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

This patent describes a system and method for managing the transportation of media between a data center and an outside service provider. The system includes a transportation record storage provider (TRSP) for receiving and reconciling transport requests, an outside service provider (OSP) inventory manager for keeping records of transported media, and a reconciliation provider for reconciling the two lists. The reconciliation provider can process invalid or un-matched records and generate a report of the results. The technical effects of this patent include more efficient management of transportation records, improved tracking of media movements, and increased flexibility and reliability in media transportation requests.

Problems solved by technology

For example, large institutions use OSPs to store data from one of many data centers, and if a media tape is not located at the OSP then millions of dollars of potential earnings may be lost or paid out because of law suits.

Further, physically locating the missing media tape may be an arduous task, especially if the media tape has been missing for a long time.

Merely using a TRSP is not ideal because a logical movement of a media tape may not correspond to an actual, physical, movement of the media tape.

The improvement described above still is not fool-proof because the scan files and the TRSP's records do not disclose whether the media tapes were actually received and stored at the OSP or not.

This solution is still not ideal because the responsibility for comparing records is with the OSP, responses to queries may not be timely, and the OSP can only compare its inventory to the journals / logs, which does not give a complete picture of when and where a mistake occurred.

In addition to problems of gathering and reconciling the logical and physical movements of media tapes, other errors may be introduced by the collection of information.

However, U.S. Pat. No. 7,069,278 does not address reconciliation of transaction records, especially when the logical movements of media tapes do not correspond to the physical movement of the media tapes.

However, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,886,047 and 6,557,039 do not address reconciliation of transaction records.

In addition to the deficiencies in the prior art noted above, none of the above mentioned systems is capable of analyzing data gathered during reconciliation to determine the root cause of misplaced data.

Other problems and drawbacks also exist.

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